Consumer electronics (CE) products and other electronic devices are widely commercially available to both everyday consumers and large-scale purchasers, and include but are certainly not limited to, computer systems, peripherals devices, and appliances. These electronic devices may include a variety of subsystems, such as processors, storage devices, cooling devices, batteries, interconnects, and power supplies, to name only a few examples. The status or “health” of these sub-systems is often monitored by fairly sophisticated processors executing program code.
During development, testing, and maintenance of electronic devices, a technician or other user may need to determine the status of one or more subsystem, e.g., in order to diagnose a problem and make a repair. Accordingly, the technician must access the processor monitoring the subsystem(s) to retrieve the status and/or diagnostic information. A dedicated diagnostic interface, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), may be provided to make accessing the processor more convenient. However, this seldom makes sense for reasons such as cost, physical space, aesthetics, and lack of intended use by the end-use.
Instead, electronic devices may be provided with an interface connector that the technician may connect to with a “code-reader” in order to read out the status and/or diagnostic information. But the interface connector is also undesirable by adding to the cost of the electronic devices. In addition, the electronic devices must be designed such that the interface connector is readily accessible, but for aesthetic reasons, hidden from everyday view.
Another solution is to provide a data bus between the processor monitoring the status of the subsystems and a central processor for the system where an interface may be already available. However, this solution only works for electronic devices that include a central processor with an existing interface, and that the data path exists or can be readily provided (again adding to the overall cost of the electronic devices).
In any event, accessing the processor to retrieve status and/or diagnostic information of one or more subsystem of the electronic devices may interfere with the end-user experience of the electronic devices, and degrade overall customer satisfaction.